Social criticism, the hollow pretender
Original Marathi from the Tukaram Gatha · About Sant Tukaram
मराठी मूळ
शादीचें तें सोंग । संपादितां जरा वेंग ॥1॥
पाहा कैसी विटंबना । मूर्खा अभाग्याची जना ॥ध्रु.॥
दिसतें तें लोपी । झिंज्या बोडुनियां पापी ॥2॥
सिंदळी त्या सती । तुका ह्मणे थुंका घेती ॥3॥ ॥2॥
Tukaram Gatha (Marathi Wikisource)
English Translation
Sanity is just a show; one struggles to keep up appearances. See what a disgrace befalls the foolish and the unfortunate. What is visible, the wrongdoer tries to conceal, shaving off what little dignity remains. Says Tuka, the unchaste claim to be chaste, yet they lick the spit of their own deception.
We ask forgiveness for any inaccuracies in rendering Tukaram ji’s original Marathi.
In Plain Words
Sanity is only a show; one strains to keep up the appearance. See what disgrace falls on the foolish and the luckless. What can be seen, the wrongdoer tries to hide, shaving away what little dignity is left. Tuka says: the unchaste call themselves chaste, and so they lick up their own spit.
What it means
Tukaram is exposing the gap between a person's display and the truth underneath. Keeping up a respectable front is exhausting and ends in disgrace for the foolish and unfortunate, because what is plainly visible cannot really be hidden, and the effort to conceal it strips off the last of one's dignity. The final image is deliberately ugly: those who are unchaste yet claim to be chaste end up swallowing their own spit, that is, eating their own falsehood. The verse aims at the pattern of pretending to be what one is not, and invites honest self-examination rather than disguise.
Social Criticism
Rebuke of hypocrisy, caste pride, false teachers, greed, and religious pretence.
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